Muslim Marriage Registration in Indonesia : Revised Marriage Registration Laws Cannot Overcome Compliance Flaws

Abstract

Early in 2010 a draft bill on substantive Muslim family law proposed the criminalisation of unregistered marriages and unofficial polygamous marriages in Indonesia. In the debates in the media that followed the current legal situation of unregistered marriage and unofficial polygamy was largely disregarded. In this article we argue that sufficient legal sanctions are already in place and that criminalisation of unregistered marriage is neither necessary nor desirable. The legal history of marriage registration in Indonesia indicates that from colonial times legislation has not been the problem, but, rather, a combination of lack of legal knowledge among the general public and problematic official and unofficial marriage registrars.